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'Maureen's
Musings'
 September 2014
"Smoke
hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."
- Autumn Equinox Ritual
September is
a month that sometimes has a gentle sadness in my mind, as the
warmth of summer begins to fade and the chill of Autumn starts
to be more noticeable - although sometimes we get really wonderful
weather in late September! And there is also the excitement and
anticipation from new starts - new crops being sown as the old
ones are harvested; new terms at school; new events being planned
at Church...
During the
first weekend of September I am hoping that lots of you will
come down to St Mary's at Patshull - on 7th Sept at 4.30pm for
an evening service to celebrate St Mary's patronal festival (this
actually falls on 8th Sept - so I have gone for the nearest
Sunday to that.) It is sad that we cannot use this beautiful
little church more often, but the practicalities of getting there
and opening it up make that hard - especially once the weather
turns for winter... I am hoping that in framing the summer months
we can at least have a worshipping presence there in the 'other'
half of the parish.
The following
weekend - on 14th September, we have been invited to our partner
church - St Alban's Ashmore Park, Wednesfield for an evening
communion service at 7pm. I am hoping that some of our teenagers
will come and contribute to the service and we will also be celebrating
and dedicating the picture which was painted during the 'Close
the Gap' conference. It is now hanging in St Alban's, where it
is being much appreciated. We have a print of it in St Chad's
- just to excite your interest! Come along and see the real thing
that evening.
And at the
end of the month we will again be celebrating our own Harvest
Festival... (can it really be a whole year since the Scarecrows
last made an appearance???!) Well no Scarecrows this year (Booo!
- fingers crossed for next year!), but we will be celebrating
that weekend with a wedding on the Saturday and a Baptism in
our morning Harvest Communion - so that should make it all a
very jolly time.
We will again
be sending contributions from our Harvest displays to the Foodbank
- still sadly much needed. Please think about this when donating
gifts of food for the Harvest displays. There is currently a
suggestion that a foodbank may even be set up in Wombourne in
the near future - such is the level of need locally.
May God grant
you a fruitful September!
Every Blessing
Maureen
8th September
- The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"This
festival in honour of the birth of the mother of our Lord is
celebrated on this day (or in our case the nearest Sunday to
it!) in both the eastern and western Church calendars. This festival
acknowledges the preparation by God of his people to receive
their Saviour and Lord, putting 'heaven in ordinary' and showing
that mortal flesh can be the bearer of Christ to the world."
In other words,
it is a day when we can thank God that he chose to enter into
human existence by choosing to be born as a human child and sharing
all our joys and woes. Churches dedicated to St Mary can regard
it as their special 'birthday' too.
The Collect
or Special Prayer for this day....
Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we, who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image
and conformed to the pattern of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
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